“Winner! Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!”
“Woohoo! Blaze! Blaze won!!”
“Hellfire! Hellfire!”
“As expected of the future Archmage of the Crimson Tower!!”
The result announcent from the arena and the cheers of the spectating students reached the waiting room.
As that burdenso voice echoed inside, the tension I had tried to suppress began to rise again.
Undoubtedly, Agnes, the top freshman in the Magic Departnt, must have thoroughly defeated Isabel, who was second-ranked. It was obvious without even watching.
This was one of the basic events that would occur even if you only played “Luminor Academy” once or twice, so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
Unless the protagonist character entered the Magic Departnt, Technical Departnt, or Pharmacy Departnt and targeted Agnes, this event would occur with 100% probability.
In fact, it wasn’t even really an event. In actual gaplay, it would only appear in the form of a summary in one or two sentences and had little significance to the ga‘s actual story progression. It was just pitiful for Isabel, who kept getting beaten up every ti just because she was second-ranked. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]
Thinking about this, after about ten minutes passed as the arena was being prepared, the battle between Karen and Siz, ranked 3rd and 7th respectively, also began.
The result of that match also ended anticlimactic in less than 5 minutes, just like Agnes’s evaluation battle.
“Winner, Karen Iris Stormweaver!”
“Woohoo!”
“Karen! Karen!”
The victory declaration and students’ cheers were heard again, not even ten minutes after Agnes’s duel had ended.
It was to be expected. Students with the right to choose their opponents tended to pick opponents they could easily defeat.
If you only looked at the skills of the 3rd and 7th ranked, it shouldn’t have been a match that ended this quickly, but Karen had a huge advantage over Siz in their specialties.
Karen’s specialty was Wind Magic, while Siz’s specialty was Nature Magic.
‘Originally, I was supposed to win comfortably against opponents using Summoning Magic or Dark Magic and wrap up the sester.’
I still couldn’t understand how it had turned out like this.
This academy just wouldn’t let relax even until the end of the sester.
“Lilith.”
“…Yes, Young Master Ethan.”
Ethan, who had been waiting with in the sa waiting room out of concern, approached .
Surely, he wasn’t going to tell to forfeit because he was worried, right?
Even if he said such a thing, I had no intention of missing out on this major XP event from the start. I would have to politely refuse sohow…
“You must win, Lilith.”
“…Pardon?”
“I believe you can win, Lilith.”
…What’s with him suddenly?
Well, it was still much better than telling not to do it because it was dangerous.
Rather, receiving encouragent helped focus my mind a little more. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]
I slightly bowed my head and answered Ethan, who was speaking to with a serious look.
“Of course, that’s what I intend to do.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting.”
…If I say this so shalessly and then co back defeated, I won’t be able to show my face for a while out of embarrassnt.
It seed I had no choice but to win this duel and return victorious.
“Next duel! Magic Departnt, 4th rank, Lilith Blackwood Rosewood! Technical Departnt, 2nd rank, Luke Cruella!”
As I walked out to the arena when the duel announcer called my na, the quite spacious Magic Departnt evaluation battle arena greeted .
At the sa ti, I felt the strange sensation of other students’ gazes reaching .
‘It can’t be helped. The evaluation battle event is quite a spectacle even within the academy.’
As an academy created on an isolated place called the Island of Knowledge, these sword fights and magic duels between top students were one of the few spectacles for the students.
They say the most interesting things in the world are watching fires and fights, right?
Thinking this, as I approached the center of the training ground, I could also see Luke walking toward the center of the arena from the opposite side.
She seed to have steeled herself with quite a solemn resolve to face in this duel.
‘She’s really harboring so serious grudge.’
Just by looking at the two daggers, her signature weapons, held in both hands, I could clearly see that she wasn’t approaching with a light heart.
She had literally ‘sharpened her knives’ in preparation for this duel with .
If I let my guard down for a mont, it wouldn’t be strange if a dagger was suddenly thrust into my side and I was forced to retire.
Incidentally, this evaluation battle arena is equipped with Death Prevention Magic to prevent accidents during intense duels.
After all, this is a facility that gathers famous talents from all over the country to learn knowledge and nurture talent, so of course, they would have to prevent fatal accidents during evaluation battles.
The mont a fatal wound is inflicted on the body, the said magic stops the progression of that wound, and the student who has received such damage is transported to the academy church through Spatial Transfer Magic.
Of course, this doesn’t completely erase the damage received; it just prevents death itself, so the injured might have to lie in the church for days or even weeks.
Anyway, the important thing was that lives, which should be protected as the highest priority, could be preserved sohow, and in this world, most injuries could be treated except for those in the ntal. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]
…In other words, there was no problem with rushing at your opponent with killing intent in this arena; because the Death Prevention Magic was protecting lives.
‘It also ans I can use Mana Blast without worrying.’
If I could land just one hit, it would be my victory. Conversely, if I failed to hit or failed to cast, it would be my defeat.
It was a simple formula for victory. I just thought the process of getting there might be a bit difficult.
As I made eye contact with Luke walking towards from the opposite side, I imdiately felt complex emotions directed at from his gaze.
We took our positions at a slightly reduced distance, ready for battle, without any further conversation.
“…Ready.”
“……”
“……”
Luke and I took our stances in our positions at the announcer’s words.
I gripped the silver dagger in my uniform’s inner pocket, ready to chant a spell as soon as the battle started, while Luke held daggers in both hands, looking like she might pounce at any mont.
In this strangely tense atmosphere, the announcer’s declaration to start the battle fell.
“Begin!”
Thudthudthudthud!
Luke’s body rushed towards with quick steps, her daggers swinging towards both sides of my body.
Her twin daggers, which closed the distance of about 15 ters in an instant, swung quickly as if to finish off in one blow.
Blades that would be difficult for an ordinary person to even perceive approached, aiming at my body from left and right.
It was a firm resolve to stab no matter which way I dodged, but the sound that followed was not of blades cutting and piercing flesh, but a single sound caused by friction.
Shiiiing!
“…Huh?!”
The silver dagger from my chest collided with Luke’s left dagger, causing so sparks to fly in the air from the impact.
At the sa ti, murmurs of surprise at my reaction could be heard from the spectators’ seats.
“A sword? Isn’t that a dagger?”
“Wasn’t Lilith from the Magic Departnt?”
“Hey, hey, isn’t she the woman who cut Raidenhart’s wrist with a silver dagger at the entrance ceremony…?”
Most students in the Magic and Swordsmanship Departnts already knew that I could fight with a silver dagger due to the incident I caused at the entrance ceremony, but the spectators’ seats weren’t just filled with students from these two departnts.
It wasn’t that strange for them to show such surprised reactions. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]
The sa seed to be true for Luke, who had rushed at with daggers.
“H-How…?”
How, my ass. You shouldn’t be surprised by sothing like this when you’re the one who picked this fight in the first place.
To be fair, it wasn’t purely a battle of sword against sword. She was swinging her daggers purely with the grip strength of her hands, while I had deflected her sword once using Mana Imbue and a Shockwave.
I dodged one of the blades coming from both sides by turning my body and deflected the other to create an opening.
Of course, this wasn’t particularly important. What mattered was that I had the ans to deal with Luke’s movents and techniques.
“Weren’t you a mage…?”
“No, I am.”
“Then how can you use a dagger…”
“Well, what can I say? If you don’t like it, use magic yourself.”
“……”
“You’re from the Technical Departnt, but you’re making a fuss. Don’t make this troubleso.”
Obviously, there was no rule saying that a mage couldn’t use a sword in the final evaluation battle.
In the first place, magic itself wasn’t exclusive to the Magic Departnt, and there were quite a few close-combat warriors among the nobles who used magic as a supplentary ans even if they weren’t in the Magic Departnt.
It wasn’t against the rules for soone from the Magic Departnt to fight with a sword or a spear.
After all, what the academy wanted was “academy students with combat abilities,” and they weren’t a stupid group that would prohibit magicians from equipping secondary weapons to develop those combat abilities.
“……”
On the other hand, Luke, whose first attack had been blocked by , showed sowhat confused emotions in her eyes. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]
For soone with strong pride as the princess’s guard, the situation of having her blade blocked by a female student from the Magic Departnt must have been hard to understand.
However, that mont of hesitation on her part beca an opportunity for .
For a close-combat fighter to give distance and ti to a Magic Departnt student ant giving them ti to respond.
Thanking Luke’s montarily foolish judgnt, I used the next spell I had secretly morized.
*SHIIIINE*
“Ugh?!”
Blurred Light, a spell I had learned separately from the auxiliary magic tree for this battle.
It was a magic used to montarily blur vision by flashing a strong light in front of the eyes, allowing other party mbers to attack in the anti. Of course, there were no other party mbers with , so I had to do both the support and the attack myself.
Luke showed an opening as she montarily squinted at the flash of light thrust before her eyes.
That opening was exactly the mont I was aiming for, and this ti, I cast three Magic Arrows, created by triple casting flew toward Luke.
There wasn’t enough ti to use Mana Blast, so the plan was to inflict small wounds little by little for now.
Whoosh!
“AAAAARGH!”
With only a 20% hit rate, there was a possibility that all three shots would miss, but fortunately, it seed the god of fate hadn’t abandoned .
One of the three Magic Arrows pierced Luke’s left forearm, and her painful scream reached my ears.
‘Well, that’s one hit.’
For a duel between a close-combat fighter and a mage, it wasn’t a bad start.
Whether I could end it this decently until the end remained to be seen.
Reviews
All reviews (0)